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2018-06-28 Two-character Country Codes at the Second Level
GAC Advice
2018-06-28 Two-character Country Codes at the Second Level
ICANN62 Panama Communique
Consensus met
2018-06-28 Two-character Country Codes at the Second Level
a. The GAC advises the ICANN Board to:
- Work, as soon as possible, with those GAC members who have expressed serious concerns with respect to the release of their 2-character country/territory codes at the second level in order to establish an effective mechanism to resolve their concerns in a satisfactory manner, bearing in mind that previous GAC advice on the matter stands.
- Immediately take necessary steps to prevent further negative consequences for the concerned GAC members arising from the November 2016 Board Resolution.
Rationale
The GAC notes the range of actions taken by the Board in response to concerns previously expressed with regard to release of 2-character codes at the second level. However, these actions have not been sufficient from the perspective of the concerned countries.
On 15 March 2017, through the Copenhagen Communiqué, the GAC communicated its understanding to the ICANN community, and in particular to the ICANN Board, that there were “changes created by the 8 November 2016 Resolution” relating to the release procedure of 2-Character Country/Territory Codes at the Second Level.
As stated in the 15 March 2017 Copenhagen Communiqué, the changes introduced by the 8 November 2016 Resolution meant that, contrary to the then prevailing practice, “it is no longer mandatory for the registries to notify governments of the plans for their use of 2-letter codes, nor are registries required to seek agreement of governments when releasing two-letter country codes at the second level”.
Accordingly, in the 15 March 2017 Copenhagen Communiqué, the GAC provided full consensus advice to the ICANN Board, which included requests that the Board “[t]ake into account the serious concerns expressed by some GAC Members as contained in previous GAC Advice”; “[i]mmediately explore measures to find a satisfactory solution of the matter to meet the concerns of these countries before being further aggravated”; and “[p]rovide clarification of the decision-making process and of the rationale for the November 2016 resolution, particularly in regard to consideration of the GAC advice, timing and level of support for this resolution.”
Under the 8 November 2016 Resolution, ICANN’s “President and CEO, or his designee(s), is authorized to take such actions as appropriate to authorize registry operators to release at the second level the reserved letter/letter two-character ASCII labels, not otherwise reserved pursuant to Specification 5, Section 6 of the Registry Agreement, subject to these measures.”
Previously to the “changes created by the 8 November 2016 Resolution”, in its 30 June 2016 Helsinki Communiqué, it was stated that “[t]he GAC considers that, in the event that no preference has been stated [as to the requirement that an applicant obtains explicit agreement of the country/territory whose 2-letter code is to be used at the second level], a lack of response should not be considered consent.”
Also, previously to the “changes created by the 8 November 2016 Resolution”, there was an established process for requests to release two-letter codes. As advised by the GAC in its 11 February 2015 Singapore Communiqué, this process involved “an effective notification mechanism, so that relevant governments can be alerted as requests are initiated”, and it relied on “[a] list of GAC Members who intend to agree to all requests and do not require notification”.
On 20 June 2018, the GAC was informed that, on 12 June 2018, ICANN had authorized the Registry Operator for .XXX “to release for registration to third parties and activation in the DNS at the second level all two-character letter/letter ASCII labels not previously authorized by ICANN for release and not otherwise required to be reserved pursuant to the Registry Agreement”. The announcement of the release of not previously authorized 2-character codes at the second level has caused some GAC members to reiterate serious concerns about ICANN’s ability to engage with the relevant GAC members to find a satisfactory solution to the matter. These unresolved concerns include doubts about ICANN Board’s ability to provide a satisfactory explanation for the “changes created by the 8 November 2016 Resolution”, as well as to adopt measures – pending a satisfactory settlement of the matter – to prevent further consequences from the “changes created by the 8 November 2016” for the concerned GAC members.